Friday, July 10, 2020

Scenic Arkansas

Shalom took me grocery shopping the other day and on the way it turned into a scenic tour on the way home.  Knowing that I came from corn country, he started out showing me Milo crops.  The picture didn't turn out so you have to settle for this information instead. 

"Milo is used for several things, but in the United States, primarily it is used as cattle and hog feed. It is priced most often at a discount to corn, so it is a cheaper alternative to corn when used as feed. It is considered a slight inferior substitute to corn in livestock rations."

Milo looks a lot like corn when it starts out but after it gets up higher you can start to see the differences.  The main one that I saw as Shalom went by was that the leaves on the stalks aren't as spread out as corn is.  I'm used to seeing the leaves on the corn reach out pretty far on each side.  With Milo it stays closer to the stalk.

That got us on the topic of rice.  The area I'm in is the home of Riceland Rice so you see rice everywhere.  I had never seen rice grow before so he took me to find a nice field of it.  It was interesting but what interested me most was irrigation system.

First is the rice on either side of the irrigation dyke.  They create little dykes in the fields so when it rains, or they water the rice, the overflow will each out to all the other areas.  It is built up but there also are little areas where they flatten the dyke so water can flow out.


This picture will show the irrigation tubing that the water flows through.  As you can see, as the water runs through it, there are holes which forces the water to up and out.  It's fun to watch and reminds me of old garden hoses that spring leaks when they need replacing.  LOL.



This pictures shows how they run the generator.  Basically it is just a diesel engine that gets set up and used as a generator.  I found it pretty efficient and interesting.




Shalom also took me to see the river which is only 4 miles from my house.  Of course that 4 miles is crooked and i wouldn't walk it!  He almost got stuck in the sand as he was taking me around to get my pictures.

This was the Payneway Acess  and there is a Dam there that can be locked down or opened up a bit to help with the control of the water in the delta.  This was the lowest the river has been in a long time but you can still see that on one side of the dam the water is still rolling/turbelent.

One side of the bridge...

and the other side of the bridge/dam.


We saw some people fishing in the area and you can park there etc.




To learn more about the St. Francis River go to:


I hoped you enjoyed the pictures and little scenic tour.  Happy Friday and have a great day!

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